Some Questions About Linux And SpeakUp

[Michael Whapples]

Speakup and orca perform two different tasks, they work on different
parts of the operating system. To understand this you will need to
understand the difference of the text console and the GUI in Linux.

The text console of Linux, is a purely text based system. If you wish to
make a Ms comparison, the text console is like DOS. The text console
provides nearly (possibly all) the apps you will need. Many use the text
console as it is simpler, faster, and to some a preferable way to work.
The GUI is a Windows like environment. This environment may be more
welcoming to a person used to using Ms Windows, as in the GUI there are
all the usual things you expect, menus, list views, etc, meaning you
don't necessarily need to know how to use it fully (where as in the text
console you really need to know the commands). These two environments
are entirely separate, but you can have both environments on the system
(to use another Ms comparison, in the days of windows 95 it was possible
to use a proper DOS environment but you could also load into windows on
that one machine, Linux is like this, not like windows XP where the only
DOS like environment is a command window).

Now to explain why you would need speakup and orca. Speakup works only
for the text console (again in Ms terms, DOS screen readers could only
read DOS), and Orca only works in the GUI (a windows screen reader only
works in windows or a command prompt window, not a full DOS system). In
the GUI in Linux, there are command prompt terminal windows which work
with Orca, but I don't think Orca works as well as speakup does when I
want to do text commands. 

One thing I would say, remember Linux stuff is generally free, so if you
have the time, you may just want to try a few distros to find out what
suits you. You may wish to use a virtual machine system such as vmware
to save having to keep reformatting drives while you just try things out
and then when you have decided you could install your choice properly so
you are running directly in Linux.

It can be hard to answer some of the questions you have asked as alot
comes down to personal preference, so that is why I suggested try some
out and make your choice.

From
Michael Whapples
On Sun, 2007-07-08 at 07:55 +0330, Parham wrote:
> Sorry, something is not clear here. If Ubuntu has a screen reader itself, 
> why do I need the support of Speakup?
> And also, Orca doesn't support command lines?
> Yes. So far Ubuntu is very good since I want something which has gui and the 
> text version both together, but these questions that I mentioned above would 
> be what I will help me decide.
> Thanks for your help, both.